


goodbyes

by NoodleTiger



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, alternate ending to before the storm, and are HAPPY, mostly a character exploration, rachel and chloe actually leave arcadia bay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-23
Updated: 2017-12-23
Packaged: 2019-02-18 18:29:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13106028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NoodleTiger/pseuds/NoodleTiger
Summary: Chloe realises this should be a sad moment, heartfelt and wistful but all she feels is bitter.Chloe and Rachel finally leave Arcadia Bay.





	goodbyes

**Author's Note:**

> this is mainly me wacking out some feelings about the lis ending and my life so enjoy my thought process i guess? <3

Chloe pulls up to Blackwell a good ten minutes before the end of school. The motor goes off with the twist of the key and Chloe's left with the silence of an empty campus. Her arm hangs out the window - a slight breeze drifting past - and she dares take a glance towards the school building.

It's just as bland and lifeless as she remembered.

Fucking Blackhell.

Not long, she reminds herself, strumming her fingers on the steering wheel. Soon she'll – no, _we'll_ – be out of here. She's just got to wait for Rachel to get out of school. Always the goody two shoes, Rachel couldn't possibly ditch school today.

 “It’s my last day, Chloe!” she’d explained the night before, packing a duffel bag with books and trinkets. Chloe’s sitting on Rachel’s bed, running her hands through the fur off an old plush dog. Rachel continues; “If I’m leaving for good, I want to say goodbye to everyone. In my own way,” she affirms, and turns to smile a crooked smile at Chloe, “if you know what I mean.”

 “With a bang?” Chloe guesses.

 Rachel fires a finger gun. “Bingo.”

 “So what are you going to do?” Chloe asks as Rachel turns back to her packing.

 “Oh, you know,” her girlfriend hums, “spread a little chaos, a little mystery. What I do best.”

 Chloe hopes _her_ day went well. On the other hand, Chloe’s day so far has been _shit._ She’d just finished packing – and loading it onto her truck – when she got caught by _David_ at the last second.

 She’s so sick of his scolding. _‘Have you even thought about what this will do to your mother?’_ Well, she seemed happier when Chloe was gone. _‘Where will you get the money to live?’_ Last time she checked, that was none of David’s fucking business. _‘You’re too young for this!’_ Chloe’s old enough to know the last thing she wants is to live in this rotten town full of rotten people that only reminds her of everything she’s lost.

 Chloe had gotten halfway to the school when she got a call from her sobbing mother. Chloe had to pull over, console her mother over the phone, explain, explain again that no, she’s not coming back, she can’t do this anymore, promise to stay safe, to stay in contact, that she loves her mother, before Chloe could finally hang up.

But she made it.

She’s about to leave Arcadia Bay.

Forever.

She just has to wait for Rachel.

Chloe takes a deep breath. She still can’t believe Rachel wanted to spend even a second more at Blackwell. Chloe had been expelled – and hasn’t been there since the tempest performance – and she’s itching to leave it already.

Rachel doesn’t have as many negative connotations with the school, she guesses. Just… Just with home.

They tried contacting Sera – through whatever means they could – before giving up and deciding to leave. Rachel had only just come back from the hospital but she couldn’t bear the thought of living under the same roof as her father any longer.

 Chloe didn’t blame her.

 Chloe knows when school finally breaks up for the day. There’s a sense of movement, energy in the air, the news of the fall of the day.

 She suddenly realises – properly – this is the last time she will see her school. She’ll never set foot in its classrooms again, never talk to these people again. She’ll never get another failing grade, or feel the heat of a teacher’s scorn.

Chloe realises this should be a sad moment, heartfelt and wistful but all she feels is bitter.

 “You think you’re grown up, huh?” William says to her side. He sits in the passenger seat, stroking a hand over the dashboard. “Ready for the world out there?”

 “…No,” Chloe admits.

 “Then why leave, hun? You’re not strong enough for this.”

 Chloe grips the steering wheel tighter. “Because if I don’t leave I know I’ll die here.”

 Arcadia Bay will eat her up from the inside out – poison her – and torment her.

 A living scar.

 William places a hand on top of hers. “It’ll always be here if you need it.”

 Chloe turns to look at him.

 The seat is empty.

 “I know,” she whispers to herself.

 There’s a rap on the side of her door. Chloe twists back to see Rachel, leaning on through the car window. “Hey beautiful,” she teases. “Come here often?”

 Chloe snorts. “Get in, idiot.”

 Rachel laughs – that lovely laugh of hers – and slinks around the front of the van, pulling herself into the passenger seat. She’s bubbling over with excitement, leaning over to give Chloe a hello kiss, and then tearing into the backpack at her feet.

 “I have been pouring over this map all day. I am _so ready_ to get out of here.”

 “You know where to go?”

 “Oh hell yeah, Price,” Rachel says. “I have all the directions to get to New York _fucking_ city right here!” She giggles – uncontainable – and leans over into Chloe’s space. “I can’t believe we’re finally doing this!”

 Chloe starts up the van, and begins to pull away. Instead of replying to Rachel, however, she sticks her head out the window and lets out one triumphant scream of “ _GOOD-FUCKING-BYE, BLACKHELL, AND THANKS FOR ALL THE FUCKING FISH!”_

 She drives away to the peals of laughter falling from Rachel’s lips.


End file.
